Waterford Burial Records
Graveyard or burial registers can sometimes include birth, marriage, and death information. If they survive, original Waterford burial records / registers are kept by the local registrar/secretary of the parish. For the relevant contact details for Roman Catholic parishes in County Waterford, please check the website for the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore. For contact details for the Church of Ireland, please check the website for the United Dioceses of Cashel, Ferns, Ossory, Leighlin, Lismore and Waterford.
Grave Inscriptions Database
There are many burial grounds for which no burial registers survive. Many burial grounds are also closed, and some exist that are not in the ownership of the local parish.
Local community groups and Solas (FÁS) have worked together to clean and record information from headstones in a number of burial grounds throughout the City and County. The data from this work has been collated and is available in a searchable online database at Waterford City and County Library under the title “Grave Inscriptions Database”.
Other digitised resources
As ‘Sanitary Authorities’, the Board of Guardians in the Poor Law Unions, who ran local workhouses, also became responsible for the operation of some of the burial grounds in the City and County. The City Council also operated as Sanitary Authority, as were the Grand Jury and Dungarvan Town Commissioners. In the early twentieth century, the new County Council, Rural District Councils and Urban District Council established under the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, acting as Sanitary Authorities, opened new burial grounds or took over responsibility for some older grounds. These burial grounds became the responsibility of Waterford County Council or of the Town Councils when the Rural District Councils were abolished in 1925.
Waterford City and County Archives has digitised the Waterford burial records (registers) that survive from these authorities. The burial registers have been provided as PDF documents (there is not a search facility) but where there is an index in a register, this can be used to find specific entries. Maps of the burial grounds have also been provided. You can click on the maps provided and enlarge them to enable individual plot numbers to be visible on the map.
- St. Otteran’s Burial Ground (also known as Ballinaneeshagh).
- St. Declan’s Burial Ground, Ardmore.
- St. Carthage’s Burial Ground, Lismore.
- St. Patrick’s Burial Ground, Tramore.
- St. Mary’s Cemetery, Butlerstown.
Thompson’s Funeral Books
Thompson Funeral Directors in Waterford are one of Ireland’s oldest family run businesses and have provided undertaking services in Waterford City and County for over 225 years. They have offices in Waterford City and a branch office in Tramore, Co. Waterford.
Waterford City and County Libraries has undertaken to digitize and publish online in eBook format Funeral Books dating from 1874. These records give a wealth of detail that contribute enormously to Waterford Studies and add to our growing digital collections in support of quality genealogical research.
- Funeral Book 1874-1892
- Funeral Book 1902-1929
- Funeral Book 1903-1929
- Funeral Book 1910-1918
The following books are available to researchers on request and can be accessed in the Central Library or Dungarvan Library. Contact the Local Studies Department to make a booking or for further information.
- Funeral Book 1939-1951
- Funeral Book 1971-1972
- Funeral Book 1973-1975
- Funeral Book 1976-1977
- Car and Taxi Hire Book 1971-1976
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